A spiral antenna system optimized to transmit and/or receive linearly polarized signals and circularly polarized signals. The antenna system includes a spiral antenna and a circuit for exciting the spiral antenna to transmit or receive linearly polarized and circularly polarized signals simultaneously.
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12. An antenna system comprising:
a spiral antenna having a plurality of arms;
a ground plane located a distance from said spiral antenna; and
a feed network located on said ground plane, said feed network coupled with said spiral antenna, wherein said feed network excites said spiral antenna to generate linearly polarized signals and circularly polarized signals.
29. A method for providing a low profile antenna system comprising the steps of:
providing a spiral antenna, having at least one pair of arms;
supporting said spiral antenna at a distance above a ground plane, said distance optimizing an elevation angle of peak radiation;
connecting said spiral antenna to a feed cable, said feed cable having an outer conductor; and
exciting said outer conductor of said feed cable with respect to said ground to generate a monopole.
25. An antenna system operating within a band of interest, said antenna system comprising:
a spiral antenna having a plurality of arms;
a planar support substrate for supporting said spiral antenna at a distance above a ground plane, said distance optimizing an elevation angel of peak radiation;
a microstrip circuit connected to said spiral antenna, said microstrip circuit exciting said spiral antenna; and
a plurality of resistors, at least one resistor disposed on one of said plurality of arms of said spiral antenna.
1. A method of transmitting and/or receiving linearly polarized signals and circularly polarized signals within a frequency band, the method comprising:
providing a spiral antenna with a plurality of arms, where n equals the number of arms in said plurality of arms;
exciting said plurality of arms whereby adjacent arms have a phase shift of 720/n degrees between them for transmission and/or reception of circularly polarized signals;
supporting said spiral antenna at a distance above a ground plane; and
exciting a pair of conductors with respect to said ground plane and in phase with each other for transmission and/or reception of linearly polarized signals.
19. A spiral antenna system operating within a band of interest, the antenna system comprising:
a spiral antenna having four arms;
a support for supporting said spiral antenna at a distance above a ground plane;
a microstrip circuit connected to said spiral antenna, said microstrip circuit exciting said spiral antenna;
a pair of conductors, having a first end and a second end, said first end coupled to said spiral antenna, said second end coupled to said microstrip circuit; and
wherein said spiral antenna system operates in both a top-loaded monopole mode and a second resonance spiral mode, where the top-loaded monopole mode is for receiving linearly polarized signals and the second resonance spiral mode is for receiving circularly polarized signals.
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a first via and a second via for connecting said microstrip circuit to said spiral antenna;
a quarter wavelength transmission line with a first end and a second end, said first end coupled to said second via; and
a 90 degree hybrid coupler, having a first port, a second port, a third port and a fourth port, said first port of said 90 degree hybrid coupler coupled to said second end of said quarter wavelength transmission line, said second port of said 90 degree hybrid coupler coupled to said first via.
26. The antenna system of
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This application claims the benefits of U.S. Provisional Patent Application 60/388,097 filed Jun. 10, 2002, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated hereby by this reference.
The present invention relates to antenna systems which may be used on vehicles to communicate with both a satellite and a terrestrial system.
There is currently a need for antennas and/or antenna systems that can communicate with both a satellite and a terrestrial system. One example of such a need is for a Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) radio in which radio signals are broadcasted from a satellite and are received by a receiver located on the vehicle and are also received by terrestrial repeaters which rebroadcast the signals therefrom to the same vehicle. Typically, a DBS uses circular polarization so the vehicle can receive the transmission in any orientation. However, terrestrial networks typically transmit in linear, vertical polarization. If satellite communication fails (e.g., if the satellite becomes hidden by a building or by another object, man-made or natural), then the terrestrially rebroadcast signal can be used to fill in the gaps in the satellite signal.
DBS radio systems typically have a narrow bandwidth (about 0.5%) due to the low power available from satellites, as well as the problems associated with mobile wireless communications.
On the other hand, an antenna is typically designed with at least several percent bandwidth to account for possible errors in manufacturing. For this reason, the antennas used to receive DBS radio signals will generally have a much wider bandwidth than the signals of interest (both satellite and terrestrial), and thus the various components of DBS signals can be considered as being essentially at the same frequency.
There is a need for antennas or antenna systems that can receive radio frequency signals having circular polarization and/or linear vertical polarization. Furthermore, the antenna or antenna system should preferably be able to utilize different radiation patterns for each of these two functions. The antenna or antenna system should have a radiation pattern lobe with circular polarization directed towards the sky at the required elevation angle for satellite reception, and also have a radiation pattern lobe with linear polarization directed towards the horizon for terrestrial repeater reception.
Currently, there are antennas that can perform these two functions. One example of such an antenna is the quadrafilar helix antenna, which consists of four wires wound in a helical geometry. The drawback of this antenna is that it typically protrudes more than one-half wavelength from the surface of wherever it is mounted and, thus, if it is mounted on the exterior surface of a vehicle, it results in an unsightly and unaerodynamic vertical structure.
The antenna disclosed herein performs these two functions yet protrudes less than one-quarter wavelength from the roof of the vehicle. It is able to perform as a dual circular/linear polarized antenna with optimized antenna patterns for both the satellite and terrestrial links.
This invention offers a method of operating a spiral antenna simultaneously as a top-loaded monopole and in second resonance spiral mode.
The prior art includes:
Related art includes the following patent applications which are assigned to assignee of the present invention:
In one aspect, this invention utilizes a spiral antenna to provide efficient radiation and/or reception of circularly polarized signals in a direction approximately 30 to 70 degrees from the axis of the spiral and, simultaneously, linearly polarized signals in a direction closer to the plane of the spiral. In the preferred embodiment, the spiral antenna provides efficient radiation and/or reception of circularly polarized signals in a direction approximately 45 degrees from the axis of the spiral. Simultaneous reception of both circularly and linearly polarized signals is achieved by exciting the spiral antenna in two ways. A feed network is preferably utilized which has two outputs that are routed to a radio transmitter and/or a radio receiver. A transceiver could be used if the antenna system is used for both receiving and transmitting signals. The primary advantage of this antenna system is that the antenna patterns may be optimized for receiving simultaneous terrestrial and satellite links while preferably still maintaining a low profile (for example, a height less than a quarter wavelength).
In another aspect, the invention provides an antenna system comprising: a spiral antenna having a plurality of arms; a ground plane located a distance from the spiral antenna; and a feed network located on the ground plane, the feed network coupled to the spiral antenna, wherein the feed network excites the spiral antenna to generate linearly polarized signals and circularly polarized signals.
In yet another aspect, the invention provides a spiral antenna system comprising: a spiral antenna; a method for exciting the spiral antenna for providing simultaneous circular and linear polarizations where linearly polarized signals are transmitted toward or received from a direction of the horizon and circularly polarized signals are transmitted toward or received from a direction 30 to 70 degrees above the horizon; and a method of supporting the spiral antenna above a ground plane containing the method for exciting the spiral antenna.
Yet another aspect of the present invention provides a method for transmitting/receiving linearly polarized signals and circularly polarized signals within a band of interest, the method comprising the steps of: providing a spiral antenna with a plurality of arms, where n equals the number of arms in the plurality of arms; exciting the plurality of arms whereby adjacent arms have a phase shift of 720/n degrees between them for transmission and/or reception of circularly polarized signals; supporting the spiral antenna at a distance above a ground plane; and exciting a pair of conductors with respect to the ground plane and in phase with each other for transmission/reception of linearly polarized signals.
Yet another aspect of the present invention provides a spiral antenna system operating in both a top-loaded monopole mode and a second resonance spiral mode, where the top-loaded monopole mode is for receiving linearly polarized signals and the second resonance spiral mode is for receiving circularly polarized signals, the spiral antenna system operating within a band of interest, the antenna system comprising: a spiral antenna having four arms; a support for supporting the spiral antenna at a distance above a ground plane; a microstrip circuit connected to the spiral antenna, the microstrip circuit exciting the spiral antenna; and a pair of conductors, having a first end and a second end, the first end coupled to the spiral antenna, and the second end coupled to the microstrip circuit.
Yet another aspect of the present invention provides an antenna system operating within a band of interest, the antenna system comprising: a spiral antenna having a plurality of arms; a support for supporting the spiral antenna at a distance above a ground plane, the distance optimizing an elevation angle of peak radiation; a microstrip circuit connected to the spiral antenna, the microstrip circuit exciting the spiral antenna; and a plurality of resistors, at least one resistor disposed on one of the plurality of arms of the spiral antenna.
Yet another aspect of the present invention provides a method for providing a low profile antenna system comprising the steps of: providing a spiral antenna, having at least one pair of arms; supporting the spiral antenna at a distance above a ground plane, the distance preferably optimizing an elevation angle of peak radiation; connecting the spiral antenna to a feed cable, the feed cable having an outer conductor; and exciting the outer conductor of the feed cable with respect to ground to yield a monopole.
In accordance with the present invention, a spiral antenna 1 (see
For this embodiment, the spiral antenna 1 is preferably mounted about approximately one inch (2.54 cm) above the ground plane 14, as shown in
To aid in assembly of the antenna, the etched side of the spiral antenna 1 is preferably mounted facing the ground plane 14. However, the etched side of the spiral antenna 1 may also be mounted facing away from the ground plane 14, if desired.
As depicted in
As shown in
As shown in
Linearly polarized signals are generated, using the top-loaded monopole on the coaxial cable 16, by exciting, with respect to the ground plane 14, both the inner 15 and outer conductors 9, 11 of the feed coaxial cable in phase with respect to each other. The length of the coaxial cable 16 is chosen such that one of the resonances of the coaxial cable 16, as loaded by the spiral antenna arms 2, 4, lines up with a frequency of interest, for example, a center frequency of about 2.339 GHz in the frequency band of 2.3325 GHz to 2.345 GHz. As indicated above, the spiral antenna 1 is located about 0.2λc above the ground plane 14 and therefor the length of coaxial cable 16 is likewise 0.2λc, which is means the monopole formed by the coaxial cable 16 has a height less than one quarter wavelength above the ground plane 14 due to the top loading provided by the arms 2, 4.
As shown in
When the feed side upper port 18 of the feed network shown in
When the spiral antenna is operated in mode 2, the lowest frequency response occurs when the outer radius of the spiral is approximately two wavelengths in circumference. In one embodiment, the spiral is optimized for use in the XM Satellite Radio system, which uses a frequency band of 2.3325 GHz to 2.345 GHz. Thus, the optimum diameter of the spiral is approximately 4 inches (10 cm). The spiral can be made smaller using materials in the direct vicinity of the spiral that have higher dielectric constants.
For improved axial ratio performance (a measure of the circular polarization purity) of spiral antennas, a common practice in the art is to absorb the energy that is not radiated but reaches the ends of the spiral arms to avoid the non-radiated energy reflecting from the open circuited ends of the arms. The absorption of energy is commonly done by placing microwave absorbing material around the perimeter of the spiral, suppressing the unwanted cross polarization over a wide bandwidth. However, the presence of the absorber around the perimeter in the antenna will also absorb energy radiated by the top-loaded monopole. To overcome this problem, one may place chip resistors 5, as shown in
One means for mounting the spiral antenna to protect it from the environment and to provide a distance between the spiral antenna 1 and the ground plane 16 is to use a dielectric cover 13, such as a polycarbonate, as a radome as shown in FIG. 5.
Full wave simulations of the structure operating as a top-loaded monopole have been made using Ansoft's HFSS software. In these simulations, the spiral was above an infinite ground plane and the chip resistors in each arm of the spiral were not included.
In another embodiment as shown in
Another embodiment of the feed network is depicted in
Although the invention has been described in conjunction with one or more embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that other alternatives, variations and modifications will be apparent in light of the foregoing description. Thus, the invention described herein is intended to embrace all such alternatives, variations and modifications that are within the scope of the following claims.
Colburn, Joseph S., Lynch, Jonathan J.
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Executed on | Assignor | Assignee | Conveyance | Frame | Reel | Doc |
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Jul 09 2003 | LYNCH, JONATHAN J | HRL Laboratories, LLC | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 014802 | /0816 | |
Jul 09 2003 | COLBURN, JOSEPH S | HRL Laboratories, LLC | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 014802 | /0816 |
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